The Chesterfield football history resource

An outstanding teenage
prospect, Shirley Wray Abbott was
born in Alfreton in 1889, the son of an auctioneer. Shirley's career seemed to
take off when Derby County took him from Alfreton Town to the Baseball Ground
in 1912, but he blossomed after moving to Fratton Park a year later, where he
captained Pompey to the Southern League championship in 1920.

Although very
much a veteran by the time he joined Chesterfield from QPR in 1924, Shirley was
a steadying, dependable presence in the half-back line and was soon appointed
captain. He was at one time the club's oldest-ever player, played 127 times in
the League for Chesterfield and retired to be appointed to the position of
First-team Trainer in May, 1928.

In those days the
Trainer usually looked after the team on match days, fulfilling a role now
taken by the Manager. Under Abbott’s stewardship, two Chesterfield sides won
promotion to the Second Division, and he came to be very highly regarded at
Saltergate, his cheerful, quiet and efficient manner being particularly
appreciated. He held down the trainer's job until being sacked to make way for
Billy Day, the new Secretary/Manager Norman Bullock's own man, in May, 1939.
Oddly, Abbott was reportedly lined up to go to Bury, where Day and Bullock had
come from, but the Second World War put paid to that.

Shirley returned
to Portsmouth, his wife's home town, and worked in the dockyards throughout the
war before his untimely death from cancer at the age of 58. The choice of
forename seems odd, even in a modern age when kids are called after anything
from a type of alcoholic beverage to the dog off "EastEnders," but it
reflects a traditional family naming pattern.